The North Face Masters: Part 1 - Anticipation

Since February, after returning with a discouraging run I wanted to get back and have a better run at The North Face Master's final stop for this season at Snowbird. After postponing the January stop to make Snowbird the final venue I had time to sit and wait for the snow to pile up and the venue to get perfect! Unfortunately, the last month was all over the place with record high temperatures along with a slow accumulation of storms, which dropped snow, but did so in between long, dry spells.

At each of the Masters this season, it turned out that snow was forecast. Crystal Mountain had blue skies and new snow of the qualifiers, only to be socked in for two more days while it snowed another 7” for finals. At Kirkwood it snowed 20” s for the finals and Snowbird looks to be following the same trend. Last night it dumped 8”, a telling sign for the next three days. The National Weather Service is showing a 90% chance of snow for the next three days with accumulations of 3”-5” each of those days.

I showed up on Wednesday, April 11th to scope out the venue before the next series of storms came. I saw lots of familiar faces that have been competing in the Masters this season and knew there was going to be more coming up in the next two days to pick out lines, ‘sending it’ off cliffs and down some gnarly chute. After all, this is Snowbird and we are competing on Silver Fox. North Chute may remain closed for the contest, so my line may change, but for the most part I’m thinking down the middle and land everything. Easy right? After the spring skiing yesterday, there are some frozen moguls and traverses to avoid after some mandatory airs that I have to suck up before hitting the next feature. For those of you watching, I may have come across some improvised launch pads that will make for some spectacular gaps.

This is my first year competing at The Masters. I want to lay down a run that I’m proud of and stay on my feet. After all, this is the Masters and no one had even heard of Bubba Watson two weeks ago right?

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